Kaberi Antardhan: What is in the sarcophagus?

When it comes to a Kaushik Ganguly movie, some things are expected to be sorted. There will be a good script, a well-built story, and good cinematography, with some complex psychological ups and downs and some moments of realisation (of course, for the audiences). Kaberi Antardhan cannot be said to be an exception. 

According to IMDb, the movie's genre is thriller/drama. Well, the movie's very opening scene seems to clear that Kaberi Antardhan will be a drama movie.

The time was the mid-'70s. For the subcontinent, politically, that was the most turbulent era. After a monologue describing the time and setting of the film, the actual problem is shown to the audience: somewhere in a jungle-surrounded place named Hatimara, Kaberi has suddenly got disappeared from her house, leaving a dead body, murdered with bullets. That pretty much stands in defence of the fact that the movie is a thriller.

Now, who is Kaberi? Whose dead body did she leave? As the movie runs forward, the audience finds out that the dead body is Kaberi's brother, Mrinmoy Ghosh, a police officer from Hatimara Police Station. 

However, until one year of the occurrence, the mystery of Kaberi's disappearance and Mrinmoy's death remained unresolved. Then Inspector Pritam Singh receives the charge of the police station and assures both Mrinmoy's wife, Nayantara and Kaberi's Husband, Amiyo, to bring their family justice. 

 So, another 'whodunit' cinema. There are three questions. Who killed Mrinmoy? What was the motive? And why was Kaberi disappeared? 

Those who have watched at least a decent number of murder mystery movies can easily predict that, in spite of being the prime suspect, Kaberi is not the murderer. 

Well, Kaushik Ganguly has shown pretty nice craftsmanship while baking this cinema. He presents at least three of the core characters as possible suspects so that, in each of their cases, the viewers will find enough reasons to plead each of them guilty, in other words, murderers. 

The mid-'70s was a significant time, especially for India, because of the Naxalist movement and the 'Emergency' called by the authorities against them. However, on a surface level, keeping the political issues aside, the director uses these facts quite intelligently to introduce the suspects to the viewers. 

 The first thing the viewers will find suspicious is Amartya Ghosh, Mrinmoy Ghosh's son. Apparently, the political interest and ideologies of Amartya and Mrinmoy were contradictory enough to create enough hatred inside Amartya to kill his father. 

The second suspect, Arghya Kamal Sen -- an artist who is close to the Ghosh family, also has his own motive because again and again, Mrinmoy was annoying him, raiding his house every now and then in search of the Naxalists. Moreover, at one point, Mrinmoy even suspects that Arghya may have an affair with Kaberi, thus bullying him. 

Thirdly comes Amiyo, Kaberi's husband. In the movie, Mrinmoy kept insulting him because of his inability to control his wife. Not only Mrinmoy but also Kaberi was also in this league. Besides, at one point, Amiyo learns that Kaberi had been through other affairs and lately was in an intimate relationship with Arghya. So, it is pretty likely that he has murdered both Mrinmoy and Kaberi and somehow has hidden Kaberi's body.

So, three suspects are there, and many untold stories and metaphors will unfold until the climax to show the audience how nasty revenge can get.

The actors delivered excellent performances, especially Prosenjit Chatterjee, Srabanti Chatterjee, Indraneil and Kaushik Ganguly. Though some parts of the movie have some problems with the continuity of the shots, they are easily ignorable because of the content. The movie is currently streaming on Addatimes.

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